Put aside, for now, predictions of how Amazon and e-commerce will engulf business at brick-and-mortar stores: The reality is that 94% of retail sales are still rung up in physical stores, and where merchants place those stores plays an outsized role in determining whether their chains fly or flop.

“You can’t do business in a brick and mortar store without the presence of customers, and proximity to customers is as elemental to a brick-and-mortar store as air, food and water are to each of us as human beings,” Mark Cohen, professor of marketing in the retailing studies department of Columbia University’s business school, and former CEO of Bradlees and Sears Canada, told Forbes.

(Photo credit: paulidin)

“Back in the day, Jack Kilmartin, CEO of [now defunct] Mervyns, drove the neighborhoods that surrounded the site of a potential store looking for validation that the Mervyns customer was as present as the researchers said they were.

“I doubt anyone does that today, but the need to accurately assess the market is as vital as it always was — maybe more so given the overabundance of retail real estate,” he said.

"Retailers not only need to know where their potential customers are, they need to know where they will be over the 10-to-25 year lifetime of the investment they make in physical space.”

Retailers are now turning to big data (another big industry buzz term, but one that largely warrants the attention) to help them do just that.

Simon Thompson, director of commercial business for location-analytics company Esri, shared with Forbes how ArcGIS Online, its technology platform for visualizing data in the form of maps, is helping retailers ranging from
Starbucks to Dress Barn fine tune how to pick a store location with the goal of driving more traffic and boosting sales.

Petco

"Petco staff members began using Esri’s mapping software to determine any potential risks associated with building new stores. The more stores Petco opens, the higher the risk that the company will build a store in an undesirable location.

"For example, a store in a community that has a low concentration of pet owners would hurt sales. Also, opening a store in close proximity to another Petco or a competitor would also impede the store’s performance. Esri’s software provided data analysis and demographics, giving Petco executives more confidence in their decisions."

Wendy’s

“Wendy’s, the world's third largest quick-service hamburger chain [with more than 6,500 franchise and company-operated restaurants in the U.S. and 27 countries], integrated Esri’s mapping solution to help determine new store locations. Specifically, Wendy’s surveyed its customers in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, to determine how far customers are willing to travel to come to a Wendy’s.

“They also looked at how far customers are willing to travel to get to a Wendy’s from home, work and a retail shopping center.

“Esri’s software allowed staff to easily view sales records and customize demographics on existing restaurants without any additional training. The software also enabled Wendy’s to predict and assess the value and risks for new and existing restaurant locations by simply clicking on the map," Thompson said.